By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
These days, fans are understandably worried about the future of Star Trek. The franchise is currently celebrating its 60th anniversary, but there are no new television shows in active development, and the sets for the last NuTrek series have already been torn down. Sure, there’s a new movie in development, but even the writing and directing duo behind that film have expressed uncertainty that it will ever even come out. Regardless of whether the future of this franchise is on the big screen, the small screen, or both, we can only hope the next generation of Star Trek (so to speak) resonates with audiences.
How can they do that, though? Among other things, Paramount’s next batch of creatives needs to lean wholeheartedly into the bright and colorful aesthetic of Star Trek: The Original Series. In an era where Marvel movies are so dark and ugly that it makes fans wonder if AI was involved in their creation, it’s important for Trek to embrace its roots as the most colorful vision of the future ever created. It’s also equally important to remember the forgotten producer who made it so: Robert H. Justman, who pioneered the use of gel lights for alien planets and who encouraged the director of photography to make sets and shots as colorful as possible!
The Most Colorful Show On TV
While Gene Roddenberry was the visionary who created Star Trek, The Original Series would never have become such a hit if not for other key creators who never get enough credit. One of them is Robert “Bob” Justman, an associate producer who had his own vision for how this sci-fi show should look. He soon realized audiences would be bored if every exotic alien planet looked exactly like Earth and developed a simple solution: filtered lights. Thanks to his quick thinking, special color gels were used to make distant planets look and feel sufficiently alien, and he designed each lighting backdrop himself. As a side effect, they also highlighted the franchise’s groovy colors.
Speaking of which, Justman ensured that Star Trek always boldly went when it came to colors. As written in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, he gave director of photography Jerry Finnerman some very specific advice: “We’re all in outer space, Jerry, and we’re in color. NBC claims to be the first full-color network, so let’s prove it for them. When you light the sets, throw wild colors in–magenta, red, green, any color you can find–especially behind the actors when they’re in a close shot.”
Continuing, he told the other man to “Be dramatic. In fact, go overboard. Backlight the women and make them more beautiful. Take some chances. Nobody can tell you that’s not the way the future will look. How can they? They ain’t been there yet.” Finnerman obliged, and he went out of his way to make those early episodes look as colorful as possible. This gave Star Trek a distinct visual identity that continues to this day. In particular, Strange New Worlds endeavors to channel the bright colors of The Original Series, helping it stand out against very dark (literally and figuratively) NuTrek series like Discovery and Picard.
This is just a fraction of Robert Justman’s contributions to Star Trek. If I were to review all of them, trust me: we’d be here all day! Right now, it’s enough to know that he helped create some of The Original Series’ most memorable aesthetics. Justman is who we have to thank for everything from the bold lighting on all those strange new worlds to the pops of color that made every frame so vibrant. So next time you’re watching a show or movie that looks too grim and gritty to see what’s going on, raise a toast to the producer who understood that the future, much like the present, is best enjoyed in vivid, living color.
